Please visit www.silive.com to see our wonderful students on the first day of school!

From the Staten Island Advance by Kathryn Carse on September 6, 2012

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- There was hand holding and hugs at PS 39 as students arrived at their Arrochar school with the mix of excitement and dread that overcomes kids every where on the first day of school.

Public school students and their families lucked out with a break in the showers for the start of the school year on Thursday morning -- one day after their Catholic school counterparts.

Kindergartners will enjoy an early dismissal today, and pre-k public school students will only have partial school time.

Friday will be the first full day of kindergarten, and another partial day of pre-k, which has its first full day on Monday.

Although it is the first day, it is not too early to look ahead to the first holiday which is Sept. 17 and 18 for Rosh Hashanah, followed by Yom Kippur on Sept. 26.